


A Good Day

by plaguecraft



Series: Femfest 2017 [4]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Concussions, Developing Friendships, F/F, Gen, and that livestreaming fighting omnics isn't a healthy coping mechanism, consider this me standing outside blizz demanding they acknowledge that a 19 year old, fighting a war would be traumatized, oblique mentions of trauma - relating to war trauma, particularly hana's war trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 12:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13076472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plaguecraft/pseuds/plaguecraft
Summary: Fifth Prompt: IsolationMei literally trips over a problem and decides to fix it, concussion be damned.





	A Good Day

Mei thought it was shaping up to be a really good day. The sun was shining, she had a good cup of tea, Zarya had let her sleep in… Yeah, she thought it was going to be a great day. At least until she literally tripped over a large surprise.

“Oh, shit, I am so sorry!” Dimly, Mei was aware that she recognised the voice that was babbling at her, but as of right now she was a little rattled. Tripping down stairs _hurt_. “I thought anyone who came down here would see me, I am so, so, so sorry Mei! Let me help you. Are you hurt? Oh, wait, of course you’re hurt. But, can you move? Do you need me to get Angela?”

Mei shifted her head enough to look up at Hana who was poised precariously over her. Her hands were fluttering like nervous little birds. It was obvious that even though parts of her she’d been previously unaware of hurt, it was time to summon all her experience at being a responsible adult and handle this because Hana looked three seconds away from panicking. But, God, Mei didn’t want to. She just wanted to sit and nurse her aches, maybe be pampered a little.

But Mei wasn’t one to backdown from a challenge just because her ego, or her face, was a little bruised. It was how she climbed mountains. Her own pink-haired mountain included.

“I’m okay, Hana, just a little sore. You don’t have to get Angela.” She rolled into less of an ungainly face-forward sprawl, which started up a dull ache in her lower back. She was probably going to need an icepack. “Can you help me sit up?”

“Oh sure, yeah, of course.” Hands fluttered forward quickly, landing lightly, helping her to ease her way up and over so her back was propped against the stairwell wall. Slightly better, but Mei was still shaky and battered, and Hana seemed about ready to take off at any provocation. She, and her quickly impending headache, kind of wished she’d let her go off to get Angela to handle this. Too late.

“Thank you. What were you doing on the stairs?” Mei pressed a hand to her eye where a steady throbbing pain was making itself known. Vaguely she wondered if there were still any painkillers squirrelled away in her and Zarya’s room from the last time her girlfriend overdid it weightlifting. There might be. Or a trip to see Doctor Ziegler was in her immediate future.

“Um, I just come here to think… Oh! Here’s your mug!” Somehow it had survived the fall, maybe the day was still going to be good after all. And as she thought that, she finally really noticed and fully processed the tremble in Hana’s hand as she held out the mug. Her eyes were also red and raw, the way you’d look if you’d been crying for a long time… Mei narrowed her own eyes in thought. This was going to require delicacy and precision. Something the pressing headache was going to make difficult.

“Hana, are you okay?” Not her best effort, if Mei was being honest with herself. And judging by the way Hana’s face suddenly froze into a stilted, megawatted smile it really could’ve been better. Mentally kicking herself, she watched as Hana smiled and started to back away, hands doing the universal ‘nothing to see here’ dance. “Wait! Please, I don’t think I can get back to my room on my own.”

“Oh.” She stopped, and Mei had to mentally hold in a sigh of relief. She really didn’t want to be stranded here in the stairwell.

“Yes, could you please stay and help me get back?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks.” Once she was up and braced against her, one arm wrapped awkwardly over her shoulders, Mei added, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but it might help. Also, if you want you can always come to mine and Zarya’s room, to _think_. It’s a lot quieter and less well-travelled than the stairs.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Okay.”

“There isn’t.” She paused, breathed out. Shifting slightly, which made Mei wince. “But thanks for the offer.”

They walked, stumbled, along in silence, Mei feeling increasingly more awkward but also slightly relieved. It was getting harder to form coherent thoughts with all the pain breaking her concentration. Sooner than expected thanks to their faltering pace, they reached her door. Mei breathed a sigh of relief, but sucked it back in when the door burst open at the hands of her tornado in human form girlfriend.

She certainly hadn’t been expecting that.

“Mei! What happened?”

“Oh, I just had a little fall.” Zarya didn’t exactly look like she was buying what Mei was selling, and she hurried on. “So, Hana here helped me get home! Could you get me an icepack and some painkillers please?”

With some obvious reluctance, Zarya turned to do as she asked, and Hana helped her inside. All good so far. Hopefully she could just take some painkillers and sleep off her headache… But first, Hana. She couldn’t forget that. Even if a small little hurting part of her that begged for sleep wanted to. With great deliberation, she carefully crushed that little voice and turned to Hana who was carefully placing a cushion behind her back for her.

“So…”

“Hmm?” Hana blinked down at her, but before Mei could ask anything she was cut off by Zarya piping up from where she was rattling around in the bathroom. Presumably looking for painkillers.

“I know you said it was a ‘little’ fall, but I really think you should go have Angela check you out.”

“That’s probably a good idea.” Hana said, agreeing. Mei narrowed her eyes at the treachery of the two of them ganging up on her.

“And maybe you should admit that crying in the stairs isn’t normal behaviour.” Well, she hadn’t exactly meant to say that…

The quiet that followed made Mei’s skin itch. Zarya moved out of the bathroom to look at her, considering. Hana just looked like she’d slapped her. Mei was sure she’d never wanted to disappear as much as she did right in that moment. Why had she said that? And why had she said it like _that_? She knew better than to be so callously cruel to someone suffering. Or at least she certainly hoped she did.

“Sounds like a concussion talking.” Zarya said finally, breaking the tension.

“It’s not a concussion.” Mei knew she was pouting, but it seemed she was bound on a course of saying things she didn’t really mean at the moment. And she just didn’t really want to admit Zarya was probably right.

“Your head is bleeding, _dushechka_.” Zarya said, simple and final. Mei cut her eyes to Hana, who shrugged.

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to freak you out.”

“Now, we should take you to see – “

“But – “Zarya frowned down at her, before walking over and gently, so gently, kissing her forehead. If she hadn’t seen her move, Mei almost would have sworn she hadn’t touched her at all.

“Okay, because you’re so stubborn I will translate. Hana, what Mei was trying to say before the concussion got in the way, is that you shouldn’t have to feel like you have to isolate yourself when you can’t keep up the public face anymore.” Both Mei and Hana stared at Zarya, who just laughed and shrugged genially. “You think you are the only face of hope for a nation? I know what you are going through better than you might think. And if you want, this could be a space for you to unwind and be yourself. I think you might need it, no?”

Hana ducked her head, nodding slightly. Playing with her hair, she spoke, voice tight, “I do, but, I don’t think I can be myself. I don’t even really know who that is anymore.”

Zarya nodded, turning away slightly. Managing the impossible, to make herself seem smaller, less imposing. “That’s okay. You can figure it out, you have time. If you want you can stay here while I take Mei to see Angela, watch something or play something. Up to you.”

“I’d like that. Do you have any multiplayer games?”

“Yeah, a few.” They shared a smile, soldiers understanding each other. Mei watched them, tucked behind a thick wall of hazy pain. Distantly, she thought that was probably a bad thing. On a more immediate level she was wondering _why_ she was in so much pain, and was so nauseous.

She really didn’t want to throw up in front of people. That’d be embarrassing.

“Okay you, time to go see the good doctor.” Zarya said, and suddenly she was scooped up in her strong arms. And even though the movement made her stomach lurch, being cradled against the solid warmth of her girlfriend made Mei think that maybe today was a good day after all.

**Author's Note:**

> When I started writing this, it was intended as a feel-good hurt/comfort with friendship between Mei and D.va, with Mei doing all the comforting and a lot more frank discussion of PTSD between the both of them. Then I realised if Mei ate it going down stairs she was not going to walk away from that unscathed, certainly not with the ability to offer the kind of reassurance I wanted plot-wise (which I'm basing off personal experience with concussions lmao), and also that Zarya would be more likely to understand what D.va is going through. So. This is what it ended up being.


End file.
